As I was driving to work this morning, I heard on the radio that, according to a study conducted by Clairol (maybe not the most reliable source), women are on average the happiest and most confident at age 28. Two things struck me about this:

1. Thank goodness I'm not supposed to be my happiest and most confident yet. I mean, I do feel pretty happy, but I think I have a long way to go in the confidence area.
2. 28? Really? That still seems so young. Is it all downhill from there? I think that there will hopefully be a lot more reasons to be happy and confident when I'm 50 or 60 than at age 28—children, grandchildren, a decades-long marriage, more career experience, a closer relationship with God.

If anyone's reading this who's over 28, what do you think? Were you most happy and confident in your 20s or later in life?

Kitchen Fail

There is this hilarious blog I discovered called Craft Fail, where, as the name implies, people post pictures and stories of their failed craft projects. It's always good for a laugh, and it usually makes me feel better about myself, as most all crafts I attempt are "fails."

I think there should be a kitchen fail blog. (Maybe there is one that I don't know about.) Until I find one, I'll just post my own story here. My mom once told me that she enjoys hearing about my kitchen mess-ups, since, according to her, I don't mess up enough (with my cooking...she didn't specify other areas). This one is not as bad as my sausage-ball incident, but it probably is the most number of mistakes I've ever made in one recipe. Feel free to add any of your own kitchen mishaps in the comments; it'll make me feel better.

In preparing for Darby's parents to come, I decided I should probably offer them something for breakfast besides dry cereal. I've been wanting to make this coffee cake from Smitten Kitchen for quite some time. It seemed simple enough, and I was super excited to use my new kitchen scale to precisely measure the flour.

I had already decided to substitute blueberries for rhubarb, and light brown sugar for dark brown sugar. Little did I know that those changes were just the tip of the iceberg.

I dole out 1 3/4 cup flour, mix the dry ingredients together, and get ready to mix the wet ingredients. Uh-oh. The recipe calls for one egg and one egg yolk. I only have one egg. After some Googling, I decide that I can substitute 1/4 c. applesauce for the egg yolk.

I mix the wet and dry ingredients together and notice that the mixture seems a little dry. So, I go back and re-read the direction. Uh-oh again. The 1 3/4 c. flour was for the crumb topping. The cake was only supposed to have 1 c. flour. So I add a little milk.

As I'm making the crumb topping, I realize that I put an extra 2 tbsp. of butter in the cake batter, which is why it only seemed a little dry, not super dry, I guess. Hmmm...now I have no idea how my ratio of wet/dry ingredients compares to the actual recipe. Uh-0h #3. I decide to just go with it.

I stir together the flour, sugar, and spices for the crumb topping. I'm about to pour in the melted butter, when I read that I was supposed to mix the sugar and butter together, then stir in the flour. Uh-oh #4. I go ahead and pour the butter in. The topping is supposed to come together like a solid dough, which you then break apart. It doesn't. At this point, I'm afraid to add more butter. Also, I'm lazy and just want to be done. So I just sprinkle the topping over the cake and put it in the oven.

Amazingly, after all of that, the cake was still edible, although a little dry. I feel like I have to make the cake again, though, since I pretty much have no idea what the actual recipe would taste like. I also feel like I should perhaps learn how to read recipes. :)

Adventures in Arkansas

Well, we are back from the land of slow drawls, big hair, and 100-degree heat. :)

It was a beautiful wedding and reception, and it was nice to get to see all of Darby's family.

I realized while we were there what an "Illinoisan" I'm becoming. I used to not notice Southern accents, but now it's all I can think about whenever I hear them. (People tell Darby and me all the time that we do not sound like Texans; I'm not sure how we managed to escape the telltale accent.)

I also realized that I definitely fit in more appearance-wise with midwesterners. Women up here prefer a more, shall we say, "natural" look. When I walked into the wedding reception, I realized that I couldn't remember the last time I had been in the presence of so much make-up, hairspray, and fake tan all in one room. I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb (a very pale thumb). If and when we do move back to Texas, that will be hard to get used to. Here, I usually feel like I look pretty good. There, I feel like a 12-year-old girl stuck in a room full of Miss America finalists.

We had a little adventure getting to Arkansas on Friday. We were driving down the Interstate, about to cross the border from Illinois into Missouri, and everything was going smoothly. Darby noticed the gas light come on. We had just passed a BP station, but we didn't want to have to turn around, so we decided we'd just stop at the next station we saw. Well, I think you can see where this is headed. We didn't see another gas station for about 30 miles, so we ran out of gas. Darby pulled off on the shoulder, got out, and flagged someone down. Thankfully, a man stopped right away and offered to drive Darby to the next gas station (about 7 miles down the road). He only had room in his car for one person, so I stayed with our car. I realized about 5 minutes too late that I probably should have written down the guy's license plate number. If Darby never came back, I'd have virtually no information to give to the police. Fortunately, he made it back about 30 minutes later.

The guy who picked him up had an interesting story. He had been in and out of jail already that day (for driving with a suspended license). Glad he didn't get pulled over again! But, it just goes to show that not everyone in jail is a bad person. This guy stopped for us when lots of other cars passed on by. (Kind of a modern-day Good Samaritan story). It's funny...I usually find an excuse not to stop when I see someone on the side of the road (even when Darby is with me), but when you're in that situation, you are just praying that someone will come along who is nicer than you and will stop. I'm going to try to be better about that from now on.

Here I am entertaining myself and trying not to think of all of the terrible things that could happen to Darby.

All in all, we only lost about an hour and then we were on our way. The funniest part is on the way back, we saw a gas station about 5 miles down the road from the BP station. Don't know how we missed it!!

Early Birthday

My actual birthday is today, but Darby and I are at his cousin's wedding in Arkansas, so we celebrated Thursday night. I told Darby that I wanted my gift from him to be going out to eat at a nice restaurant.

After deliberating for several weeks (I am not exaggerating), I finally settled on The Great Impasta, a nice Italian place in downtown Urbana. It was delicious. I had ravioli alfredo (you only thought there couldn't be a pasta dish unhealthier than fettuccine alfredo...think again!)

This next part of the story is going to sound pretty lame, but oh well, I guess my lameness is no big secret. I baked my own birthday cake. Is that sad? Darby would have gladly bought me one, but I'm always looking for an excuse to bake, and I think homemade cakes taste better than most storebought ones anyway.

I deliberated over the type of cake for a long time, as well. (My decision-making abilities seem to be deteriorating with age; you would think it would be the opposite.) I finally settled on a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese frosting was never up for debate; that's a must!

I think it turned out fairly well. It was yummy, not too sweet and very moist.

I'll write more about our adventures getting to Arkansas and more of my birthday celebrations when we get back.

Surprise Flowers

When we moved in last August, there was only one flowering plant in our flowerbeds. It was very beautiful and bloomed all the way through October, I think. This bush looked reaallly bad in March. We thought it was dead. Darby started cutting off all the branches to make it easier to dig up. When he got to the bottom, he realized that it was still alive. We left it and within a few weeks it had grown back and started blooming. All it needed was to be deadheaded. Oops! I am definitely not a green thumb.

This spring, it was so fun to see what bloomed in April and May. We had beautiful little purple and white flowers on the bushes lining the edges of our flowerbeds, and some brilliant hot pink flowers bloomed on a couple of plants that I had thought about digging up they were so ugly. I'm glad I didn't. I didn't think to get pictures of those flowers, but we enjoyed them for several weeks.

However, the biggest surprise came a couple of weeks ago when this huge grassy plant all of the sudden exploded with yellow buds. The flowers are so pretty. I'm not sure what kind they are, but I love them! What a fun surprise!

Row, row, row your boat

Tonight for our "date night," Darby and I went to Kickapoo state park (about 20 mins. away) and rented a canoe. It was so fun!! We found out about it because there was a coupon for $3 off canoe rental on the back of one of our receipts at the grocery store. I'm so glad we saw it.

Don't look up Darby's shorts. Hee-hee!

This picture was kind of staged. I didn't do much rowing. :) It kinda hurt my shoulder. Plus, Darby seemed to be handling it just fine.

We saw a deer! It let us get really close without running away.

There was hardly anyone else out tonight. It was very peaceful. We're going to go back sometime and canoe on the river instead of the lake (a little more exciting, although I'll actually have to do my part of the rowing), and we're going to rent a paddleboat! It was a great date night, which we capped off with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. Yum!

One summer goal down

This weekend, Darby and I set up our badminton net and played a couple of times. I'm improving little by little. I told Darby that maybe by the end of the summer I'll be good enough that we can actually keep score. :)

So far, the summer has been nice and lazy, as summer should be. The weather here is wonderful! The high has been in the 70s most days. We've been able to take a lot of walks. On Saturday morning, we went to the downtown farmer's market. I would love to be able to buy all of our produce there, but it is just sooo much more expensive than the supermarket. (I know it's better quality, but still.) We don't have a lot of produce available here yet, but I did get some strawberries and a couple of tomatoes. Homegrown tomatoes are just so amazing!

During the summer, I don't do as much cooking as I normally do. Even though our house stays much cooler than our apartment in Abilene did, it still gets pretty hot with the oven on. So we've been eating a lot of sandwiches and getting the occasional $5 pizza from Little Caesar's. I had clipped a recipe for pasta salad from Taste of Home a year ago or so, and I finally made it the other night. It is sooo good! I'm not big on mayonnaise or other heavy dressings, so a lot of pasta salads don't appeal to me. This one was wonderful, though. It has a very light but flavorful dressing, and the salami and pepperoni give it even more flavor. Don't be afraid of the red wine vinegar. It smells pretty strong, but there's so little of it compared to the size of the salad that it's not overpowering. Try it out for an easy, oven-free lunch or dinner. (We ate sandwiches with ours, but it could easily be a meal in itself.)

Salami Pasta Salad
From: Taste of Home

2 cups uncooked small pasta shells
3/4 c. chopped green pepper (I omitted this because Darby doesn't like peppers very much.)
3/4 c. chopped fresh tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, halved.)
1/2 c. chopped pepperoni
1/2 c. cubed hard salami
1/2 c. whole black olives, quartered
2 oz. provolone cheese, cubed (Chunk provolone cheese is pretty expensive, so I just bought slices and tore them into little bits.)
1/3 c. chopped onion (I omitted this, as well)

Dressing
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt (You could probably cut back on this as pepperoni, salami, and olives are all very salty.)
1/2 tsp. pepper
1-1/2 tsp. dried oregano

Cook pasta. Drain and rinse in cold water. Place in large bowl and add other salad ingredients.

In a jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the dressing ingredients; shake well. (The dressing will be bright pink, but it doesn't tint the pasta. I was a little afraid at first.) Pour over pasta mixture; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate.

Eight years ago, I had no idea...

Eight years ago today Darby and I went on our first date. We saw A Knight's Tale (his parents drove us, as we were both just shy of 16!) Afterward, his parents took us to eat at McAllister's Deli. I wish I could say our first date was "magical," but honestly, it was a little awkward. We both went home and thought, "That's not gonna work." Obviously that wasn't the end of the story.

I do not believe in soulmates. I don't think there's just one perfect person for everyone out there and that if you don't meet him/her, you'll never be in love. I believe there are several people you could fall in love with, and that if your love leads you to marriage, you make the conscious decision to continue loving that person. The problem with soulmates is that if you marry someone and then meet your true "soulmate," what are you supposed to do? Leave the person you're with?

That being said, I do believe that God can lead you to a certain person at a certain time. And I definitely do believe that there was something guiding mine and Darby's relationship besides just our feelings. Eight years ago, it was not "love at first sight." (Actually, that would have had to occur 12 years ago when we met for the first time.) We didn't just "get" each other immediately, and I don't believe we've ever stayed up all night talking. (I'm not really an all-nighter kind of gal.) Don't get me wrong, we have always had a wonderful friendship, a strong attraction, and we've both experienced the "butterflies." But it used to bother me that our relationship wasn't as "romantic" as what you see in the movies or read about in books. I've even had friends whose relationships were more like that than mine. But I'm realizing more and more that our story is special, too. God brought us together again and again, and we've chosen each other again and again. There was never a sense of inevitability, a feeling that we were "made for each other," but there was an undeniable connection that got us through those awkward first dates, one year of separation, and two break-ups.

I am so glad Darby asked me to the movies eight years ago. Sometimes I'm amazed that we actually made it to where we are today. Then I remember that God helped us connect the dots from June 6, 2001 to July 7, 2007 (and beyond). I don't know that Darby is my "soulmate," but he is my lifemate, and I couldn't be happier.

Last night, Darby and I watched Jay Leno's last night as host of The Tonight Show. I have always loved Leno, even though most people my age prefer Letterman (or Conan O'Brien). I just don't get those two. I don't enjoy "random" humor. I like the scripted, sort of cheesy stuff. Plus, Jay just seems like a really good guy. He's been doing free shows for people who have lost their jobs, and, he's still married to his wife. Last night he said, "The best thing about leaving is that I'm leaving with the same girl I came with," and then he pointed to his wife in the audience who was beaming and waving. So sweet!

We don't watch Jay every night, but we do usually watch Headlines on Mondays. That tradition started long before we got married, though. My mom and I would stay up on Mondays when I was in high school to watch (well, I would stay up; she would have been awake anyway). It was a fun tradition. Plus, Mom would always give me a backrub while we watched. I enjoy watching with Darby, but I don't get the guaranteed backrub!

Jay's going to have a new show in the fall, and he's still going to do the Headlines segment! Darby and I are both glad that it's on earlier so we don't have to stay up to watch anymore. (Guess I'm not the only old one in this relationship!)

Splurges for the Ultra-Frugal

I pride myself on being very frugal. Some might say I'm obsessed with it. But I am beginning to realize that there are some things I'm going to have to resign myself to spending more money on (i.e., not always buying the cheapest version I can find) or I'll go crazy. Here's some items I'm willing to splurge on. (And, obviously, my definition of a splurge is pretty loose.)

1. Glad or Saran wrap. The generic DOES NOT work. I don't understand how they're allowed to sell that stuff. It doesn't even stick to itself.

2. Dove deodorant. Jessica introduced me to this back in high school, and I haven't switched since. It smells so good! I can't stand perfume-y or baby powder smells. Dove just smells really fresh and clean. It's worth the expense.

3. Tomatoes, all year long, even in winter when they're like $4 a pound. It's so worth it!

4. Good bras. Sorry if you're a guy reading this; I hope that's not TMI. My last bra cost $80. I have to admit I cried a little after I bought it. But, I've now resigned myself to the fact that I will spend more on my undergarments than I will ever spend on a shirt, jeans, and maybe even shoes. That's my life.

5. Disinfecting wipes (like Clorox). This is the only way I will clean with any sort of regularity. But they have to be a reputable brand. I bought the store brand once, and they are so thin. It's terrible!

6. Coffee. We're coffee snobs. (Darby more than me, but I'm coming around.) If you think you don't like coffee and all you've tried is Folgers, please try something else. We get our beans from a local roastery, but Starbucks and Seattle's Best both have really good blends.

Is it sad that almost all of my "splurges" are things you can buy at the grocery store? I mean, I really do spend money on restaurants, entertainment, and travel, just not very often. So, I have to have some little day-to-day things that make me happy. Trying to strike a balance between budget-consciousness and obsessiveness is kind of hard for me. Do any of you have that problem? I've started getting kind of panicked when I can't find any cereal I like on sale at the store. I'll just wander the aisle for 10 minutes thinking about what to do. I need help. :)

Thanks for all the salsa recipes! I made the one I had bookmarked this weekend since I already had the stuff for it. It was good, but a little too spicy for my taste. I can't wait to try all of the recipes people left in the comments.

I called Norma to get clarification on the chocolate cream pie recipe, and it worked out great! There wasn't a step missing in the recipe. It was just a case of someone who knows the recipe backward and forward writing it down for someone who has no idea how to do it. It wasn't super-detailed. :)

Darby and I had a nice, lazy Memorial Day weekend. We've been steadily collecting all 10 seasons of Friends for the past few years. We finally got the one season we had been missing (Season 8) last week. So, we've been watching pretty much non-stop. We started at Season 1 about a month ago and are now on Season 8. We'll sit down to watch "one episode" and end up watching a whole disc. We're pretty much bums.

Now, I'm watching the Jon and Kate Plus Eight season premiere and getting really ticked. There have been all these rumors about Jon having an affair. I'm not sure whether any of those are true or not. (Jon's denying it.) But, Jon has said he doesn't want to do the show anymore. Kate, of course, still wants to. I'm sure there are lots of other issues, but if she really wants to salvage their marriage like she says, then the first step would be STOP FILMING THE SHOW! I can't imagine Darby ever telling me he really didn't want to do something and me insisting that he do it. Whether she thinks his feelings are justified or not, she should respect them. Then she's all like, "Poor me. The paparazzi are following me everywhere." Gee, I wonder if they might stop if you didn't have your own T.V. show? (Why do I watch these shows that make me angry? There must be some sort of psychological study about that.) Anyway, rant over. Just had to get that out of my system.

In need of recipes

Okay, I need some help. Does anyone have a really good recipe for chocolate cream pie and/or homemade salsa?

The story behind needing a chocolate cream pie recipe is kinda funny. A friend of ours invited Darby and me over for a cookout on Memorial Day. I asked him if I could bring anything, and he said, "Yeah...a chocolate cream pie." It kind of surprised me. Usually people say, "Oh, a dessert or something." But, he knew he wanted a chocolate cream pie. I'm happy to oblige, and I've actually been looking for an excuse to make one. Norma (for those of you who know her) gave me her recipe a while ago. But when I started looking at it, it seemed to be missing a step or two. I might just use the steps of another recipe and the ingredients from Norma's, but I'm nervous. Anyone made one?

I've been going through A LOT of storebought salsa lately, and it's pretty expensive. I think I can make it for less at home, especially if I make a big batch and freeze some of it. (I'm not ready to get into canning yet. I'm afraid I might poison myself or something.) I found what looks like a good recipe online here, but any suggestions are welcome.

Summer's here!

You can't really tell by the weather, though. (It got down to 39 on Sunday night!!) It seems to be warming up some, although I had to laugh when the weatherman said that tomorrow's going to be a "scorcher." The high? 82. Ha!

Summer is absolutely my favorite time of year. Even though, I'm not in school any more, it always feels like I have so much more free time. And, I guess I do have a little more free time this summer. Starting June 1, we are switching to "summer hours" at work, which means we work 7 to 3, rather than 8 to 4:30. It'll be really nice to be done at 3, but getting to work at 7 might be rough for a while!

The best thing about summer is that Darby doesn't have homework, so I can spend my evenings with him, rather than watching dumb TLC shows. Yay! I decided that every Tuesday night this summer should be date night. Every week, we switch off who plans our date. It's so nice to have something to look forward to during the week. I mean, we spend every night together anyway, but on Tuesdays we have to actually do something besides watch TV or play Wii. :)

I have a tradition of setting goals for myself for the summer (fun goals, nothing like losing weight or anything). So, here are a few things I'd like to do before September 1:

• Go on a picnic. When I graduated from high school, Darby gave me a picnic basket full of really cute melanine dishes and plastic silverware. I love it, but sadly, I've only used it two or three times.
• Play badminton. My mom gave Darby a badminton set for his birthday last year. We played a few times after we moved here, but then our yard was covered with snow for four months, so we got out of the habit.
• Finish my wedding scrapbook. (For real this time...haha!) I am soooo close. Why is it so hard for me to do the last ten percent?
• Make homemade ice cream. I have an ice cream maker that I've used about three times. The ice cream tastes so good, but it's kind of a pain to add all the ice and salt. I really would like one of those ice cream makers that doesn't require ice (you just freeze the bowl or something), but I don't want to spend money on one unless I know I'll use it. So to prove to myself that a new one would be worth it, I have to use my lame ice cream maker several times this summer.
• Take a trip with Darby to either Nashville or St. Louis.

I'll probably add a few more to this list, but that's what I came up with off the top of my head.

3 crazy things I saw on my way to/from work today

1. On my way to work, a woman was stopped at a stop sign across from me and not going when it was her turn. There was a huge line of cars backed up behind her. As I drove by, I looked in her car to make sure she was okay. She was texting!!
   
2. On the way home, there was a car stopped in the righthand lane near a light. The cars in front of her had already gone, and she wasn't moving. I looked in, and, yep, she was texting! It wasn't the same woman, either.
3. On my way home, I saw a girl walking down the sidewalk in a T-shirt, what appeared to be her underwear, and leg warmers that came up past her knee. So her entire thigh was exposed. I almost hit the car in front of me staring at her. After I thought about it for a while, I realized that maybe she was going to dance class and was wearing her leotard. But, really, if you're going to put on leg warmers, why not just throw on some sweatpants? It looks a lot less weird.
   

We had a great time in Abilene; it was just way too short. We got in Friday night and went to Chili's for dinner. Friday was my mom's 50th birthday, so we went over to my aunt's house for a little party with all of the family that had come into town. I put together a book of letters for her from friends and family. I think it turned out really well. I am so glad I was able to be there for my mom's birthday. She is awesome!

Mom reading her book

The guy "frousins" looking tough

Hannah graduated on Saturday morning. Afterwards, we ate at Lytle Land and Cattle and then went back to Aunt Lea's house for more cake and presents. Darby and I were able to talk to our old preacher (the one who married us) for a little bit after graduation, which was great.

All of the current and former ACUers with Willie the Wildcat. Yeah, we're that cool.

Me and Darby...just because we never have pictures together. You can ignore my blindingly-white legs. That's what happens when a naturally pale person moves to Illinois and keeps her legs covered for 6 months. It's not pretty.

We stayed with Darby's old roommate Nathan and his wife Jesiree. It was nice to get to visit with them some and see their precious house.

We left this morning at 11 a.m. We were so bummed that we weren't able to go to church at Westgate. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to go back and stay a little longer once I have vacation from work. I am so happy we were able to be in Texas for mom's birthday, Hannah's graduation, and Mother's Day all in one weekend. And it was great to see so much of our extended family. I can't wait until July when we see everyone again at Amy's wedding.

My first roommate

My sister is graduating from ACU tomorrow! And I will be there! I am so excited for her. I know she is going to be a fabulous teacher. I don't think anyone loves children more than Hannah.

All of this has made me nostalgic for my ACU days (not that they were that long ago!) In a lot of ways the past 2 1/2 years have flown by, but it also seems like it's been a long time since I was living with Brittany, taking exams, working the free movies for CAB.

And it feels like FOREVER ago that I was graduating high school and getting ready to go to ACU. I was so excited but quite a bit nervous. I was especially anxious to find out who my roommate was. I waited and waited and finally got the card in the mail that said I would be living in Gardner Hall with Jeanine Wilson from Tahoka, TX. I nervously dialed the phone number on the card, and it had been disconnected! I was freaking out, thinking, "Oh no! I'm not going to be able to get a hold of her and she's going to think I don't want to room with her and then she's going to find a new roommate and I'm going to have to live alone." (I feel like I've mellowed some since then, at least I hope I have.)

Well, I think my mom and I, with a little Internet research, were able to find her number online (guess where my stalker tendencies come from?) I called and left a message. When she called back, I was at work and wasn't going to be home until late, so I couldn't call her until the next day. I fretted that whole time wondering if she thought I just didn't want to talk to her. (I am sometimes amazed that I have not had a heart attack due to all my worrying.) I finally was able to talk to her, and much to my relief, she seemed very nice, smart, and normal. We exchanged pictures (it's kind of like online dating, ha!), and she was really cute with short strawberry blonde hair and freckles.

The only disappointment was that she had already gotten her bedding. I really wanted us to have matching bedding, but I thought, "Well, maybe I'll just get something that coordinates with hers." So I asked her what hers looked like, and she said, "It's a black comforter with red and black Asian-inspired throw pillows." Oh, no! That totally did not coordinate with the Crazy Daisy set I had been wanting! But, I got it anyway.

I wish I had asked Jeanine what she thought that first day when she walked into our room and saw my blindingly bright comforter, my Hello Kitty alarm clock, and my abundance of clothes. She was a little bit on the tomboy side, and had a much more "Zen" style. I'm sure she wondered what she had gotten herself into.

But, we got along pretty well. Of course, we had some of the normal roommate tension. And we didn't hang out together all the time. But, I think I got really lucky for a random drawing. Jeanine was sweet and fun; she kept the room clean; she didn't make fun of me for going to bed early; she was serious about her faith. I'm not sure what she's doing now. Last I heard she was in Mexico for a short-term mission.

You could not pay me to go back and share that little room and use a community bathroom. But, at the time, I thought it was great. Some of my fondest college memories are from freshman year, living with 200 other silly girls, thinking we were "adults." I am so happy I went to ACU. I'm sure I would have enjoyed anywhere I went, but I really liked being at a small school, having to live in the dorms, actually getting to know my professors. I won't say it was the best four years of my life; being married to Darby is definitely better. But it was for sure the most fun four years of my life.

Hope you aren't bored to tears by my reminiscing. I love having my blog because I can look back and see what was going on in my life a year or two ago. But, I didn't have a blog in high school or college, so I'm trying to record some of my memories before I lose the details.

Motivated eater

I was reading an article in SELF magazine (I got a free subscription), and I found a term that totally describes my relationship with food: motivated eater. You see, normal people will only eat bad stuff when they have it around. Motivated eaters, on the other hand, will go out at midnight in a blizzard to get some ice cream. Yep, that's me. So, it doesn't matter if motivated eaters get rid of all of their junk food. (Well, I guess it can't hurt, but it definitely doesn't solve the problem.)

Case(s) in point: I do not keep packaged dessert items in the house. But, I have been known to whip up a chocolate cake from scratch just so I can eat something sweet. A few weeks ago, I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I thought I'd be smart and freeze half of the dough so that I wasn't tempted to eat all of the cookies at once. Well, guess what happened to that dough? It got eaten, bit by bit by bit. If only cookie dough didn't thaw so quickly!

I don't remember what suggestions SELF had to remedy this problem. Should I get rid of all my flour and sugar? Move 30 miles from the nearest Dairy Queen? I think maybe the solution is to become a motivated exerciser. That's a little harder to get motivated about. :)

April showers bring May flowers (I hope!)

It rains A LOT here. At least once a week. This week, it has rained every day except yesterday. In some ways, it's nice because everything is very green, but how can you enjoy the green when it's raining all the time? Also, there aren't any wildflowers here. I miss the bluebonnets, Indian paintbrushes, and buttercups; here, we have dandelions. TONS of them! Our entire yard pretty much consists of dandelions and clover; I'm not joking. There are a few patches of actual grass. Darby spread some "Weed and Feed" yesterday, so we're hoping for the best. We can't pull the dandelions because we read that you have to dig them up to make sure you get the entire root. Ummm, no; if we did that, we'd have no yard. We did go out and snip all the heads off so that they don't go to seed and spread their seeds for next year. Ha! Within 12 hours, the heads had grown back. They are mocking us.
The one place we do have quite a bit of grass is in our flower beds. Go figure. It is embarrassing how awful our front yard looks. I am going to attempt to plant some things in the beds this weekend to spruce it up a little. Any gardeners out there got ideas for relatively cheap, low-maintenance, fast-growing perennials that like full sun? (On the days when it is sunny, our yard gets full sun; I'm hoping we have more sunny days soon!)

I'm happy because...

• I'm wearing flip-flops for the first time since November! (Well, not including after I had my toe surgery. That doesn't count, though, because my feet were freezing!) The high today is 81!
• This morning I got 10 Swagbucks. Have you heard of this site? You win prizes just for using them as your search engine. At first, I thought it was a scam, but then I heard about more and more people using it. So I signed up. The site is powered by Google, so the searches are actually pretty good. Sometimes, you'll do a search and get nothing, but other times you'll get one, five, or ten Swagbucks. (One is the most common, of course.) You use your bucks to get prizes. When I get 45, I'm going to get a $5 Amazon gift card. I've been doing it for about a week, and I already have 21! If you're interested, go here to sign up. If you use that link, I'll win Swagbucks when you do. (Of course, if you don't really like me, you can always just go to http://www.swagbucks.com/ and sign up without my referral)
• We're going with a couple from church to Custard Cup tonight. And, if that weren't good enough, they are picking us up in their street-legal dune buggy. How awesome is that?!
• Michael and Pam got re-hired on The Office! Okay, I know it's kind of lame to be happy about something that happened on TV, but I really liked last night's episode.
• I get to see my family in two weeks!! We're flying to Abilene for Hannah's graduation. I think this is the longest I've gone without seeing at least one member of my family (over 4 months). It's too long!

Like a train wreck

TLC has done it again. They've sucked me in with a show that is so repulsive, so extreme that it is irresistible. First it was Toddlers and Tiaras. Now, it's I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant. Has anyone seen this show? It's insane. It features women (and evidently there are a lot...I saw 12 last night alone) who didn't know they were pregnant until they delivered their babies. They interview the women and also have a dramatic re-enactment of the scene (ewww!). I'm just having a hard time believing that someone could not know they were pregnant. The first few women I saw delivered about two months early. Seven months is pretty far along, but I conceded, "Well, okay, maybe there is a slight possibility they didn't know." Then, I saw women who delivered at 38 weeks! One woman's baby weighed over 8 pounds! And one woman didn't realize she was pregnant with TWINS! You have got to be kidding me. Now, I know I've never been pregnant, but I have seen my fair share of pregnant women. I just do not understand how you could not know. Evidently, it's more common than I thought. I was just sitting on the couch going, "This is crazy! I don't believe this." Darby said, "Why don't you just watch something else?" But I couldn't. That show has some kind of hold on me. It's dangerous.